Dominican University receives sizable contribution

Dominican University reaps millions from board chair Barowsky

Andrew Barowsky didn't attend Dominican University and doesn't even live in California, but on Wednesday the wealthy Florida baking magnate gave the San Rafael school the largest donation in its 124-year history - a gift that will fund a new business school and make Dominican a national leader in educating students who are the first in their families to attend college, administrators say.

Barowsky, who chairs Dominican's board of trustees, pledged $12.5 million toward a $25 million infusion announced Wednesday. It will be accompanied by a $5 million contribution from Barowsky's former business partner Albert Lepage. Dominican will seek $7.5 million in matching grants.

For a 2,207-student university with an annual operating budget of $52 million, the donation is a transformational gift, said Dominican University President Mary Marcy.

"What's remarkable about this is that usually when someone makes this kind of significant donation it goes for a building or a particular department," Marcy said. "What's unusual here is that this is intended to elevate the entire institution."

Barowsky, who has served on Dominican's board for a decade, told The Chronicle that he chose to give to Dominican because its small size allows him to "have a real impact. You can change it, mold it."

Administrators say the school's demographics - 30 percent of its students are the first in their families to attend college and half are minorities - make it a preview of how colleges are changing, particularly in California.

Support system

With the input of administrators and others at the school, Barowsky wants to restructure Dominican's student support system so it follows students more intensely from the time they arrive on campus as freshmen to when they find a job. He envisions internships and practical workplace experiences benefiting all students, not just the go-getters.

Marcy said studies have shown that students - particularly first-generation college-goers - perform better when surrounded by an intense support system. Other schools, like Elon University in North Carolina, are trying some of the same approaches, she said. But Marcy sees Dominican, over several years, integrating a program on a wider basis.

"We already have the small classes, so we've always been good at teaching kids individually," Marcy said, referring to the school's ratio of 10 students to one faculty member. The new program would focus on making sure they are ready to join the workforce.

The money will also be used to create a new business school, to be named for Barowsky. The Andrew P. Barowsky School of Business will start a new master's of business administration program this fall, which will include an international consulting project where students present their recommendations to a company after a 10-day in-country visit.

Cooperative learning

It would also be used to redesign buildings across campus to make them better suited for cooperative learning - a mirror of the wall-less high-tech campuses that are the rage in the Bay Area.

"The gift is intended to take the school and propel it forward, to become a leader nationally," Barowsky said.

At this point, the gift will not be used to help defray tuition, which is projected to be $41,280 for the 2014-15 school year.

It was Lepage's sister, Françoise Lepage, a longtime business professor at Dominican, who introduced Barowsky to the university 20 years ago. Ten years ago, he joined its board and became impressed with "how dedicated everyone is there - the board, the staff, everyone."

In 2012, Barowsky and Albert Lepage sold the Maine-based Lepage Bakeries to Flowers Foods for $370 million. Barowsky now lives in Miami Beach and regularly commutes to Dominican for meetings.

"It is the happiest commute you could imagine," he said.

Marcy said she was not concerned that one prolific donor would have an outsize role at the university, noting that Barowsky has been involved with the university at both a policy and a personal level for more than a decade. In 2012, San Francisco restaurateur Rolf Lewis, also a Dominican board member, donated $8.5 million toward a new health sciences complex at the university.

While Barowsky's gift will be transformative to Dominican, it is not the largest recent gift to a Bay Area school.

Last year, Silicon Valley real estate developer John Arrillaga gave $151 million to Stanford University, its largest gift from a living donor. It will be directed to various university projects. Last month, UC Berkeley announced it has ended a five-year $3.1 billion fundraising campaign.